It shows me using vim to replace an old variable name (“fullScreenOverlayWindow”) with a new one (“panel”). The sequence of events:

1. I move into position.
2. I enter Visual Block mode by pressing ctrl-v.
3. I jump to the end of the current word with e.
4. I jump 7 lines down with 7j. This gives me a total of 8 lines selected (including the one I started on).
5. I enter Change mode by pressing c.
6. I type my shiny new variable name. (Notice that it only displays on the line where my cursor is; all the others stay blank for the duration of my Change.)
7. I exit Change mode by pressing escape.
8. I wait a beat.
9. Voila!

Cocoa text editors like TextEdit and Xcode have rectangular selection, but not rectangular editing; you will obliterate all the lines, but only insert your new text into the first line. This is not useful.

$

Move to the last column in the line

%

Move to the opposite character in a pair (e.g. {→})

^

Move to the first non-whitespace column in the line

On a US keyboard, these three characters are contiguous: shift-4, -5, and -6, respectively.

This means that you can quickly navigate code like this with only your ring, middle, and index fingers on one hand:

⁰if(foo) {¹ doTheThingToTheThing(); ²} else {³ doTheThingToTheOtherThing(); ⁴}

• From 4 to 0: %^%^
• From 0 to 4: $%$%

Neat, huh?

Technorati tags: vim

First, mkdir ~/.vim, and cd ~/.vim. Now mkdir syntax. cp /usr/share/vim/vim62/filetype.vim . and cp /usr/share/vim/vim62/syntax/objc.vim syntax/. Then select and copy this patch:

Index: filetype.vim
===================================================================
--- filetype.vim 2005-03-21 02:12:47.000000000 -0800
+++ filetype.vim 2006-04-24 03:33:27.000000000 -0700
@@ -262,7 +262,7 @@

 " .h files can be C or C++, set c_syntax_for_h if you want C
 au BufNewFile,BufRead *.h
- \ if exists("c_syntax_for_h") | setf c | else | setf cpp | endif
+ \ if exists("c_syntax_for_h") | setf c | else | if exists("objc_syntax_for_h") | setf objc | else | setf cpp | endif | endif

 " TLH files are C++ headers generated by Visual C++'s #import from typelibs
 au BufNewFile,BufRead *.tlh   setf cpp
Index: syntax/objc.vim
===================================================================
--- syntax/objc.vim 2005-03-21 02:12:49.000000000 -0800
+++ syntax/objc.vim 2006-04-24 03:19:25.000000000 -0700
@@ -43,6 +43,8 @@
 syn match  objcDirective "@class\|@end\|@defs"
 syn match  objcDirective "@encode\|@protocol\|@selector"

+syn keyword     objcStorageClass   in out inout byref bycopy
+
 " Match the ObjC method types
 "
 " NOTE: here I match only the indicators, this looks
@@ -73,6 +75,7 @@
   HiLink objcFactMethod Function
   HiLink objcStatement Statement
   HiLink objcDirective Statement
+  HiLink objcStorageClass StorageClass

   delcommand HiLink
 endif

Now type pbpaste | patch -p0.

OK, now you have modified copies of the file type detector and the Obj-C syntax coloring. Now you need a .vimrc. If you already have one, add this to it; otherwise, create it with this:

let c_gnu=1
let c_no_bracket_error=1
let objc_syntax_for_h=1
syntax enable

This makes the following changes:

c_gnu

Enables detection of some GCC extensions to C.

c_no_bracket_error

Allows {} inside of []. This lets you do compound literals inside messages; for example: [self setFrame:(NSRect){ NSZeroPoint, (NSSize){ 128.0f, 128.0f } }];

objc_syntax_for_h

Tells vim (with my modifications, that you did above) that a .h file is an Obj-C header, not a C++ header.

syntax enable

Enables syntax-highlighting.

Technorati tags: vim, Objective-C.